Chapter 20: Oh dear...

Snape and Lucy followed the students to the Hogwarts train. The crowd was babbling with Christmas spirit as the snow began to fall. Nobody really stared at Lucy now, most of them knew that the potions master and her where family. Snape pulled open the carriage door and let Lucy in, but before they could go an announcement boomed through the station

"All students may I have your full attention. Due to the snow the Hogwarts train will leave ten minuets later than usual"

The whole place groaned including Snape. He boarded the carriage and found carriage number six. They where covered with snow and when they got in Snape casted a spell to turn the heat up while Lucy took her coat off and shook it. The snow scattered off and Snape sat down

"Aren’t you going to take our coat off?"

"Personally, I need all the warmth I can get" Snape shivered. Lucy then noticed the quality of the coat, couldn’t Snape afford a better one? He looked bothered and cold, two things that didn’t seem to go well

"Are you alright dad?"

"Not feeling well" he told her. This of course, wasn’t the full truth. Snape couldn’t settle though, he kept looking out the window and out in the corridor, as if looking for someone. A couple of sneezes later he stood up

"I’m going outside" he said briefly and walked out. Lucy followed him quietly and watched as Snape stood outside in the snow, footprints crunching. For anyone that’s wondering about Snape’s mad moment its because of dementors. Snape had officially had a full-blooded hate for the creatures. Anybody that tried to hurt Lucy would go straight to his hell books. Snape was feeling paranoid after the dementor attack, Dumbledore had talked about having dementors guard in the corridors on the hour. Snape had showed his anger at the idea but was told that they’d never be seen. He had only been told yesterday by Dumbledore that the dementors had begun to search the castle. He’d had dreams, well nightmares, that the dementor unlocked the house door and krept up to their bedrooms and... well

Snape shuffled his feet on the snow and it crunched loudly. He crossed is arms to keep warmth as the snow got thicker. Damn! He thought, why can’t the train just go? For once in his life he wanted to get away from Hogwarts, away from the guards the where supposed to be guarding them, not trying to kill everybody and suck their souls... he shivered at the thought.

There was so much running through the mans brain. He was juggling the attack with Lucy as well as his feelings for Jessica stone. He knew he liked her, but how was he going to admit it? Also the problem with Shona. There was something going on apart from her powers. Snape had a feeling that the powers was just one of the problems she was having.

"Severus!," Jessica gasped and ran over to him "why aren’t you in the carriage? It’s freezing out here!"

Snape shrugged and Jessica had a pitiful look on her face "the train going to leave soon, i’m promised, besides, your going very pale..."

"She’s a vampire!" Shona shouted out of one of the windows. She ran away as Snape marched after her. Jessica put her arm around his and stopped him

"Don’t Severus, McGuire’s not worth it" she spat

"You don’t like her?"

Jessica murmured something offensive before pulling out a small box

"Here," she said "little present for helping me this term" she placed it into Snape’s hands. "it’s not a bomb" she joked. Snape found himself laughing. The student’s ran away into the carriages as the steam train rolled out smoke.

"Merry Christmas Severus" she said calmly. She stepped closer and kissed him on the cheek, he looked at her as he spoke the word

"Merry Christmas Jessica..." He was about to carry on when a head popped out of the window next to them

"Snape’s a vampire!" Shona screamed. Snape bounced back as she started to laugh, Snape swiped his had onto the window and slammed it shut. It struck shona on the head and she fell back dramatically. Suddenly the steam train started to move

"Quick!" He said as the door they where meant to be boarding floated away. Snape reached for the handle and hopped in, holding out his hand for Jessica. She took it and she stumbled forward. They caught their breath and made their way to the carriages

Lucy had given up after a couple of minutes on spying on Snape, she wondered if he had even bothered to get back on. The door slid open revealing Jessica and Snape, he offered her a seat but she shook her head

"Sorry Severus, Dumbledore’s ordered all the students to be in the student carriages..."

"Dad can I go?" Lucy butted in. Snape waved his hand and let her go, knowing she didn’t really want to be around them

"Oh and I got these for you, like you asked" she took a bunch of muggle newspapers out from her coat

"Thank you" Snape muttered as Jessica threw it on to her table.

"What do you want them for anyway?"

The sun, the times, the daily telegraph, the daily prophet and the Sunday mirror. Snape sighed as he picked up the sun. he had decided that if Shona wasn’t going to tell her what was going on then he’d find out. He partly wanted to know if there was anything to do with any attacks.

"Yo there Lucky Lu!" Shona said as Lucy entered the cabin

"What the?"

"Oh well, everyone calling you Lucky, because you keep surviving tons of stuff!" Shona replied she turned back to her book

"What’s that book?"

"Oh its about patronus’s, got it from the library" she told her, not looking up from the book "so, how did you find me?"

"Oh I followed the screams of Stanley Stevens running away from you"

"He was in my way!"

"He was on the other side of the hall!"

"What? Can I help it his face is so big?" she replied knowingly. Lucy laughed

"I’m going to find the others, ok?"

"Yep, just leave Darwina to study her nerd book" she muttered. Lucy laughed as she slammed the sliding door. Shona read the book intensely, it was just so fascinating. It was two big pages covering the patronus’s animal, dotted sentences and explanations. The book was a bit big, but the detail was excellent. There where many animals. Shona had a couple of other books as well. There was a defence against the dark arts volume five, magical beasts for the wildest and magical myths. Shona had kept them for the summer and decided that shed read more later. She picked up her school bag and picked up her luggage and dragged it outside to find the others

‘seriously I wish she’d shut up’ a voice said to her. Shona froze and waited

‘I wonder what I got for Christmas?’ another voice ringed in her head

Mindreading, she thought. Shona carried on as her powers pursued. She heard every thought that everyone was thinking as she walked past and her other powers told her how many people where in the compartments. Shona finally reached the cabin where her friends where and boarded. It was crowded again and Shona was met by Ron over the babbling noise

"Sorry Shona there not enough room, can you go somewhere else?"

"Err, sure..." she muttered as Ron shut the door. She went back to her carriage only to find Malfoy in it

"What are you looking at?" she mouthed through the window. Shona stormed off and sat in the corridor again

Snape slammed the times on the table. This wasn’t the best way to go round looking for clues, it was something to do but it was boring him to tears. Snape hoped he would find something soon, and indeed did. He glumly picked the Sunday mirror and scanned the front. Snape mind sprung at a small subtitle at the side of the paper. It read ‘Worthing’s war’ he saw it was on page five and raced to it. The muggle papers had paid off, he thought, after that long hour. The article took half the page

WORTHINGS ‘WAR’ CONTINUES

The bustling place of Worthing struggles todays it was announced that job cuts had affected almost three quarters of the area.

The job cuts are caused by a major tiling market closing due to low stocks and not enough buyers. The town faces numerous problems including problems. But for some, that’s all that they deserved

"The towns a total wreck," says Ben Smith "and they deserve it. The place has had numerous outbreaks due to the fights with the town on bens hill. Worthing have only themselves to blame for the destroyed houses due to fights with the ‘Bennings’. Why cant the rural Worthing’s follow the posh people of Worthing’s footsteps?" 

Everybody knows the fights and strikes that have made Worthing’s western town die and crumble. But the new MP says that Worthing’s past the post

The MP is unwilling to talk but we taught him talking to a friend saying that ‘the westerns are dragging all of Worthing down! Leave them alone and deal with the ones who can stop when there asked by police.

We have gained access to Worthing’s problems... Thirteen

Snape scurried to the page, breathing hard. Where did McGuire live? It seemed, much to Snape’s dismay, that McGuire was living there.  He found the page and creased it out, reading intensely

The tip must be kept off to children. At least ten children have died this year due to it. The youngest being seven

The dangerous drug dealers must be caught round the north

Get the police to visit

It is also expected that half of the children living there will be forced to work illegally, as young as six...

Snape couldn’t read the jobs, he placed the newspaper down and hit his head on the wood behind him, how could they let this happen? He heard giggling as Lucy ran back into the carriage

"Hi dad just getting my book"

"Lucy," Snape said quickly

"I’m fine dad, no dementor"

"Yes, does McGuire live in Worthing?"

"Yeah, you where rescued from there? Why do you want to know this?"

"I need to write a report" he lied. Lucy shrugged and walked away, but poked her head back through the door "Have you seen Shona?" 

"I think she’s in the back carriages" 

"Don’t worry" he said and let Lucy to wonder off. Snape stood up and looked out to the window silently the reflection of his face could be barely seen through fog and snow. Snape heard a click as the carriage door opened, he turned to face the person but was immediately attack with a lead piping.

Snape fell onto the table as the glass sprayed everywhere. He yelled and reached his pale hand out and stopped the racing object from denting him. Snape dug his hand into his pocket as the caped figure punched him. He winced as the thing pushed him onto the floor,  Snape’s nose trickled blood as the thing hit him again. The potions master turned himself round just as the man swung again, hitting him half in the chest, not enough to break his ribs but enough for a serious bruise. Snape felt a hand smack over his mouth as he yelled out in pain. Panicking inside, he dug his fingers into his right hand again and got out his wand quickly. The man rammed Snape’s hand into the wall, Preventing him from casting a spell. Snape felt the caped things press his other hand against his neck. Snape kicked the man in the chest hardly and that split second of pain allowed Snape’s wrist to slip out of the mans grip.

"Stupefy!" Snape gasped and the caped man flew backwards. The whole train seemed to sink into the man and the children in the front screamed. The shudder was violent and the man laid unconscious. Snape sighed and laid still, fearing that if he moved he would damage his ribs. He looked in horror as soon as he realised what cape the man was wearing; Plain black, just like the mugs that had tried to kill him a year earlier, just liken the yobs holding the meeting, where the dreaded follower Kingston worked for. More like killed off, Snape thought as he lazily looked at the drooping body. Snape noticed A hood protected the mans identity and he moaned as he felt his heart pelt in his chest as it seemed to rattle his ribcage. 

Suddenly another caped man appeared. Snape raised his wand but the man seemed to not notice him. He dragged the unconscious man away and left Snape lying in his own cabin floor. Suddenly one of the men spoke

"Kingston! He’s still in there..."

"I’ll pay pointy hat a visit soon"  the man pulling the fool mumbled

Kingston

 Snape felt and heard distant footsteps before the teachers flew past his carriage. Dumbledore walked into what was left of his cabin cabin and spoke to him in his usual calm voice, but with that uncanny edge of seriousness

"What happened?"

"Ur..." Snape sputtered as he felt his lips go numb. Just then Lucy rushed in

"Dad!" Lucy half cried as she tried to hug him while he laid half hunched by the wall. Snape put his arm out to stop her, fearing shed get him in the chest. He was slowly escorted to Madam Promfrey and was told he had no major injury’s. Jessica arrived shortly to see how he was doing, much to Lucy’s disgust, and was eventfully met by Ryan and Joshua

"Professor I think it would be wise if you stay in your cabin with someone" Dumbledore offered the injured man

"I will stay with Miss Stone...If that is allowed Albus”

"Why yes, it would be unwise to keep your daughter in danger if they return, which I fear they will" Dumbledore said to everyone. They all went back to their carriages and Snape sat down in his carriage with Jessica. He’d noticed Dumbledore had used the fixing charm on his carriage, making all the things float back into place without the slightest gesture it was just involved in a murder attack.

"You gave us all a fright there, Severus" she smiled and helped him sat down. Snape winced as he saw the vast bridge they would cross loom in the distance, being the size of a freckle while snow whipped the window.

"Indeed" Snape replied as he whisked his wand to clear up the newspapers he had been reading earlier.

“I guess things will never get boring around here” she said to him, holding onto his arm gently “did you like your present?”

"I haven’t opened it" he replied in shock. He reached out to the package and pulled of the ribbon. Snape took off the top and saw the blackness inside it. He laughed at the spell and let his whole hand and arm venture in. his fingers felt a thick fabric and pulled it out to revel a marvellous coat, Black and long with crafted black buttons. The thickness was great and he admired it as he pulled it out for further examination. Snape stroked it and then turned to face Jessica

"I didn’t get you anything"

"Don’t worry" she said, stroking his arm softly, he looked at her in the most unusual way  "you don’t have to give me anything"

"Actually I think I can" he whispered softly to her. He lent closer to her and place his hand on her pale cheek and lent in closer. Jessica copied him and where just inches away from each other... When Lucy ran into them on purpose. They separated quickly as Lucy talked to them

"Hi dad do you want a drink?"

"No thanks Lucy" Snape sighed, looking out the window. Jessica scowled at her and Lucy smiled at her interruption. She trotted out and Snape turned to Jessica again

"Would you like a drink?" he asked politely

"Yes, you?"

“Wine please” he replied. She left the room an sank into his chair, he dared not try kiss Jessica for the rest of the journey knowing Lucy wouldn’t be far round the corner. Snape smiled at the thought replying in his mind, knowing Jessica wanted to kiss him too…

Jessica returned quickly and placed the glasses in the carriage

"Sorry, i’ve got to see Dumbledore quickly. I promise ill be back"

"Thanks for the drinks" Snape said to her as she went to the door

"Thank Ryan, he fetched them" she smiled an turned out the door. Snape indulged himself at the sight of Jessica’s ‘back view’. He told himself off for looking in that area but Jessica always eyed him. He picked up one of the glasses and sipped it. He drunk before a similar smell wafted to his nose. He spluttered and chucked the drink down, but it was to late as the potions set to work...